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Replacing the family? Beguinages in early modern western European cities: an analysis of the family networks of beguines living in Mechelen (1532–1591)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2014

KIM OVERLAET
KIM OVERLAET*
Affiliation:
Centre for Urban History, University of Antwerp.
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Abstract

In many early modern towns of the southern Low Countries, beguinages gave adult single women of all ages the possibility to lead a religious life of contemplation in a secure setting, retaining rights to their property and not having to take permanent vows. This paper re-examines the family networks of these women by means of a micro-study of the wills left by beguines who lived in the Great Beguinage of St Catherine in sixteenth-century Mechelen, a middle-sized city in the Low Countries. By doing so, this research seeks to add nuance to a historiography that has tended to consider beguinages as artificial families, presumably during a period associated with the increasing dominance of the nuclear family and the unravelling ties of extended family.

Remplacer la famille? les béguinages des villes d'europe occidentale à l’époque moderne: une analyse des réseaux familiaux des béguines de malines (1532–1591)

A l’époque moderne, dans de nombreuses villes des Pays-Bas méridionaux, les béguinages offraient aux femmes célibataires adultes de tous âges la possibilité de mener une vie religieuse contemplative dans un cadre sécurisé, tout en maintenant leurs droits de propriété et sans avoir à prononcer de vœux permanents. L'auteur étudie les réseaux familiaux de ces femmes du seizième siècle, à partir d'une micro-analyse de testaments laissés par des béguines résidant au sein du Grand Béguinage de Sainte-Catherine de Malines, une ville flamande de taille moyenne. Ce faisant, cette recherche amène à nuancer une historiographie qui eut tendance à prendre les béguinages pour des familles artificielles, au cours d'une période associée à la domination croissante de la famille nucléaire et au relâchement des liens qu'offrait la famille élargie.

Familienersatz? beginenhöfe in frühneuzeitlichen städten westeuropas: eine analyse der familiären netzwerke der beginen in mechelen (1532–1591)

In vielen frühneuzeitlichen Städten der südlichen Niederlande boten die Beginenhöfe ledigen erwachsenen Frauen jeden Alters die Möglichkeit, in einer sicheren Umgebung ein religiöses Leben der Kontemplation zu führen, wobei sie ihre Eigentumsrechte aufrechterhalten konnten und kein permanentes Gelübde ablegen mussten. Dieser Beitrag nimmt ihre familiären Netzwerke erneut in den Blick, und zwar in Form einer Mikrostudie der Testamente der Beginen, die im 16. Jahrhundert im Großen Beginenhof von St. Katharina in Mechelen lebten, einer mittelgroßen Stadt in den Niederlanden. Auf diese Weise versucht der Beitrag ein nuancierteres Bild zu einer Historiographie beizusteuern, die bisher geneigt war, Beginenhöfe als künstliche Familien anzusehen, weil vermutlich in dieser Epoche die Dominanz der Kernfamilie zunahm und sich die Bande der erweiterten Familie auflösten.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , December 2014 , pp. 325 - 347
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

ENDNOTES

1 The term Begijn most likely derives from the root begg-, meaning to murmur or mumble, such as ‘to mumble prayers’. At first, the term beguina was a nickname for women who excessively claimed devotion by repetitively mumbling prayers, or they at least were perceived to do so. By the end of 1240, beguina had become a routine term. Simons, W., ‘Beginnings: naming beguines in the southern Low Countries’, in Böhringer, L., Deane, J. and Van Engen, H. eds., Labels and libels. Naming beguines in northern medieval Europe (Turnhout, 2014).Google Scholar

2 De Ridder, F., ‘De Oorsprong van het Mechels Begijnhof en van de Parochies in de Volkswijk van de Stad tijdens de XIIJe–XIVe eeuw’, Handelingen van de Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde, Letteren en Kunst van Mechelen 35 (1930), 56–84Google Scholar; De Ridder, F., ‘De oudste statuten van het Mechelsche Begijnhof’, Handelingen 39 (1934), 18–29Google Scholar; and De Ridder, F., ‘De conventen van het Oud-Begijnhof te Mechelen’, Handelingen 42 (1937), 23–83Google Scholar. See for an extensive and recently updated bibliography on beguinages in Europe: http://www.collective-action.info

3 Simons, W., Cities of ladies: beguine communities in the medieval Low Countries, 1200–1565 (Philadelphia, 2001), 50–2Google Scholar.

4 De Moor, T., ‘Single, safe, and sorry? Explaining the early modern beguine movement in the Low Countries’, Journal of Family History 39, 3 (2014), 3–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar; http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=855

5 T. De Moor, ‘Industrious and/or religious. The non-religious reasons to explain the revival of the beguine movement in the early modern period (Low Countries)’, History of the Family (forthcoming, 2014).

6 Simons, Cities of ladies, 61–2. See, among others, for the economic possibilities and activities of women regardless of their marital status in the late medieval Low Countries: Hutton, S., ‘“On herself and all her property”: women's economic activities in late-medieval Ghent’, Continuity and Change 20, 3 (2005), 325–49Google Scholar.

7 Stadsarchief Mechelen (City Archive of Mechelen) (hereafter SAM), Openbaar Centrum voor Maatschappelijk Welzijn (hereafter OCMW) Archive no. 9436, fifth chapter, no. 1 and no. 2; third chapter, no. 8.

8 Single women who wanted to enter the Great Beguinage of St Catherine brought their own household furniture, goods and clothes and had a guardian within or outside the beguinage who – along with the mistresses of the beguinage – kept a close eye on them, as new beguines were expected to live without the need of support from the table of the Holy Spirit (poor table) of the beguinage for a minimum of three years. SAM OCMW Archive, no. 9436, first chapter, no. 6.

9 According to the oldest ordinances of the Great Beguinage (thirteenth century) and those of the year 1588, beguines had the right to build, rent or buy (the right to live in) houses and convents within the beguinage, but they were not allowed to endow these in their wills, as these properties came into the possession of the beguinage after the renters' and owners' death. SAM OCMW Archive, no. 9436; see also De Ridder, ‘De oudste statuten’, 18–29; and De Ridder, ‘De conventen’, 23–83.

10 Lynch, K., Individuals, families and communities in Europe, 1200–1800: the urban foundations of western society (Cambridge, 2003), 80–2Google Scholar. SAM OCMW Archive, no. 9436, ninth chapter, no. 3 and first chapter, no. 5.

11 Simons, W., ‘Een zeker bestaan: de Zuidnederlandse begijnen en de Frauenfrage, 13de–18de eeuw’, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis 17, 2 (1991), 128Google Scholar. In the wake of Karl Bücher's highly influential Die Frauenfrage im Mittelalter (1910), it has been argued that beguinages offered a ‘surplus of women’ due to an unbalanced sex ratio in late medieval west European towns an attractive alternative to marrying or entering a cloister. According to Bücher, men were significantly outnumbered by women due to higher death rates for men, which were caused by their greater vulnerability to diseases and participation in warfare. This allegedly rendered medieval cities ‘faced with an abundance of women’, who found it hard to find a bridegroom, and could not afford to join a nunnery. Beguinages, it is thought, became their refuges. For the Frauenfrage debate, see: Greven, J., Die Anfänge der Beginen: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Volksfrömmigkeit und des Ordenswesens im Hochmittelalter (Münster, 1912)Google Scholar; Philippen, L. J. M., De begijnhoven. Oorsprong, geschiedenis, inrichting (Antwerp, 1918)Google Scholar. Due to a swift adaptation in influential standard works, the hypothesis formulated by Greven and Philippen has held its ground for decades. See, among others, Mens, A., Oorsprong en betekenis van de Nederlandse begijnen- en begardenbeweging. Vergelijkende studie: XIIde–XIIIde eeuw (Antwerp, 1947)Google Scholar; Grundmann, H., Religiöse Bewegungen im Mittelalter (Berlin, 1935)Google Scholar; and McDonnell, E. W., The beguines and beghards in medieval culture: with special emphasis on the Belgian scene (New Brunswick, 1954)Google Scholar. See for the most important critiques: Howell, M., Wemple, S. and Kaiser, D., ‘A documented presence: medieval women in Germanic historiography’, in Mosher Stuart, S. ed., Women in medieval history and historiography (Philadelphia, 1987), 116–23Google Scholar; Koch, E. M. F., ‘De positie van vrouwen op de huwelijksmarkt in de middeleeuwen’, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis 13 (1987), 150–72Google Scholar; and Koch, E. M. F., ‘Kloosterintrede, huwelijk en familiefortuin. De kosten van klooster en huwelijk voor adellijke vrouwen in zuidoost-Nederland in de late middeleeuwen’, in Lettinck, N. and van Moolenbroek, J. J. eds., In de schaduw van de eeuwigheid. Tien studies over religie en samenleving in laatmiddeleeuws Nederland aangeboden aan prof. dr. A.H. Bredero (Utrecht, 1986), 242–57Google Scholar.

12 This line of thought goes back to two early twentieth-century pioneering studies: both Joseph Greven (1912) and Louis J. M. Philippen (1918) linked the emergence of beguinages to concurrent developments in successful religious orders, such as the Cistercians, to which access became increasingly restricted due to the growing attractiveness (and hence expense) of entering a nunnery. In the eyes of Greven and Philippen, it could not have been a coincidence that many beguinages were established in the vicinity of such (gradually more) exclusionary convents. In short, both scholars shared the impression that beguinages functioned as refuges for single women from the lower social classes, who aspired to a religious life but whose parents could not afford the necessary dowry. However, more recent demographic comparisons between nunneries and beguinages have pointed out that especially in later periods their social composition was comparably diverse. Like nunneries, many beguinages were founded (and continued to be financially supported) by noblewomen, but – from the late middle ages onwards – both institutions commonly counted women from all strata of society. See Simons, Cities of ladies, x–xi; De Moor, ‘Industrious and/or religious’; and Howell, Wemple and Kaiser, ‘A documented presence’, 120.

13 De Moor, ‘Single, safe, and sorry?’, 6; De Moor, T., ‘The silent revolution: a new perspective on the emergence of commons, guilds and other forms of corporate collective action in western Europe’, International Review of Social History 53 (2008), 179–212Google Scholar, here 183, footnote 15. See also De Moor, T. and Van Zanden, J. L., ‘Girl power: the European marriage pattern and labour markets in the North Sea region in the late medieval and early modern period’, Economic History Review 63 (2010), 1–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Lynch, Individuals, 68–9, 80.

15 See De Moor and Van Zanden, ‘Girl power’, 1–7; and Hareven, T. K., ‘The history of the family and the complexity of social change’, American Historical Review 96 (1991), 95–124CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 100.

16 The concepts of ‘extended family’, ‘nuclear family’ and ‘household’ may overlap, though they are not synonyms. In this study, we will differentiate between the ‘birth family’ (parents, brothers and sisters), the ‘nuclear family’ (spouses and children) and the ‘extended family’ (nephews and nieces, sons and daughters-in-law, half-brothers and -sisters, cousins, grandchildren and godchildren). Carlier, M., ‘The household: an introduction’, in Carlier, M. and Soens, T. eds., The household in late medieval cities: Italy and northwestern Europe compared: Proceedings of the International Conference Ghent, 21st–22nd January 2000 (Leuven, 2001), 1–12Google Scholar, here 4.

17 See, for instance, Cressy, David, ‘Kinship and kin interaction in early modern England’, Past and Present 113 (1986), 38–69Google Scholar; Davis, N. Z., ‘Ghosts, kin, and progeny: some features of family life in early modern France’, in Rossi, A. S., Kagan, J. and Hareven, T. K. eds., The family (New York, 1978), 87–114Google Scholar; Hoppenbrouwers, P. C. M., ‘Maagschap en vriendschap. Een beschouwing over de structuur en functies van verwantschapsbetrekkingen in het laatmiddeleeuwse Holland’, Holland Historisch Tijdschrift 17 (1985), 69–108Google Scholar; Lorcin, M.-T., Vivre et mourir en Lyonnais à la fin du Moyen Age (Paris, 1981)Google Scholar; Laslett, P., ‘Family, kinship and collectivity as systems of support in pre-industrial Europe: a consideration of the “nuclear-hardship” hypothesis’, Continuity and Change 3 (1988), 153–75Google Scholar; Lynch, Individuals; and Stabel, P., De kleine stad in Vlaanderen: bevolkingsdynamiek en economische functies van de kleine en secundaire stedelijke centra in het Gentse kwartier (14de–16de eeuw) (Brussels, 1995)Google Scholar.

18 Howell, M. C., Women, production and patriarchy in late medieval cities (Chicago, 1986), 19Google Scholar.

19 See, for instance, Cressy, ‘Kinship and kin interaction’, 38–69; Hoppenbrouwers, ‘Maagschap en vriendschap’, 69–108; Laslett, ‘Family, kinship and collectivity’, 153–75; Lorcin, Vivre et mourir en Lyonnais; and Davis, ‘Ghosts, kin, and progeny’, 87–114.

20 See, among others, Carlier, M., ‘Solidariteit of sociale controle? De Rol van Vrienden en Magen en Buren in een Middeleeuwse Stad’, in Carlier, M., Greve, A., Prevenier, W. and Stabel, P. eds., Hart en Marge in de Laatmiddeleeuwse Stedelijke Maatschappij: Handelingen van het Colloquium te Gent (22–23 Augustus 1996) (Leuven, 1997), 71–93Google Scholar; Rosser, G., ‘Crafts, guilds and the negotiation of work in the medieval town’, Past and Present 154, 1 (1997), 3–31Google Scholar; P. Stabel, ‘A European household economy?’, in Carlier and Soens, The household in late medieval cities, 121–6; Stone, L., ‘The rise of the nuclear family in early modern England: the patriarchal stage’, in Rosenberg, C. E. ed., The family in history (Philadelphia, 1975), 13–57Google Scholar; and Van Dijck, M. F., ‘Towards an economic interpretation of justice? Conflict settlement, social control and civil society in urban Brabant and Mechelen during the late middle ages and the early modern period’, in Van der Heijden, M., Van Nederveen Meerkerk, E., Vermeesch, G. and Van Der Burg, M. eds., Serving the urban community: the rise of public facilities in the Low Countries (Amsterdam, 2009), 62–88Google Scholar.

21 Stabel, ‘A European household economy?’, 121–6.

22 Froide, A. M., Never married. Single women in early modern England (Oxford, 2005), 7–8Google Scholar.

23 Hareven, ‘The history of the family’, 100.

24 Guicciardini, L., Descrittione di tutti i Pausi Bassi (Antwerp [Christoffel Plantijn], 1581), 234Google Scholar.

25 De Ridder, ‘De oudste statuten’, 18–19; Simons, Cities of ladies, 103. Walter Simons based his calculation of the population figures of the Great Beguinage of Saint Catherine on a complete list of beguines who made professions in the beguinage between 1486 and the first months of 1551: SAM, OCMW Archive, no. 9442; Simons, Cities of ladies, xx.

26 Concerning the Calvinist rule in Mechelen (1580–1585), see Marnef, G., Het Calvinistisch bewind te Mechelen, 1580–1585 (Kortrijk-Heule, 1987)Google Scholar. The new beguinage of Mechelen was established in the quarter of the Nonnenstraete, a sparsely populated neighbourhood with plenty of room for expansion. Soon the beguines bought additional houses and larger properties suited for, for example, the foundation of a new firmerie (hospital) for old and sick beguines. Tepe, W., Begijnen in de Lage Landen (Aalsmeer, 1987), 128–9Google Scholar.

27 SAM, Archive of notary Guido de Hondecoutere, register no. 997, folio 17r–20v (n = 5); Aartsbisschoppelijk Archief Mechelen. (Archdiocese of Mechelen Archive) (hereafter AAM), Archives of the St Rombouts chapter, Personalia no. 412 (n = 12); SAM, OCMW Archive, no. 9445 (n = 20); and SAM, series (hereafter S.I.) no. 10–16 for the sample periods 1544–1556 and 1574–1590 (n = 385).

28 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the European Social Science History Conference 2012 in Glasgow, Scotland. I have since updated it in light of comments made at the conference and analysed additional source material. I would like to thank Peter Stabel, Bram Caers and John R. J. Eyck for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

29 Staples, K., Daughters of London. Inheriting opportunity in the late middle ages (Leiden, 2011), 13–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 SAM, OCMW Archive, no. 9445.

31 Heley, G., The material culture of the tradesmen of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1545–1642: The Durham probate record evidence (Oxford, 2009), 17–19Google Scholar. For family structures and life cycle stages as crucial factors in the decision to contribute to charity in early modern Leiden, see also Looijesteijn, H., ‘Funding and founding private charities: Leiden almshouses and their founders, 1450–1800’, Continuity and Change 27, 2 (2012), 207CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Cressy, ‘Kinship and kin interaction’; see also Bowdon, L., ‘Redefining kinship: exploring boundaries of relatedness in late medieval New Romney’, Journal of Family History 29 (2004), 407–20Google Scholar; Murray, J., ‘Kinship and friendship: the perception of family by clergy and laity in late medieval London’, Albion 20 (1988), 369–85Google Scholar; and Levine, D. and Wrightson, K, The making of an industrial society: Whickham 1560–1765 (Oxford, 1991), 280–5Google Scholar.

33 Froide, Never married, 65.

34 de Longé, G., Costumen van de stad Mechelen (Brussels, 1879), 124–44Google Scholar; see also Godding, P., ‘Dans quelle mesure pouvait-on disposer de ses biens par testament dans les anciens Pays-Bas méridonaux?’, Tijdschrift voor rechtsgeschiedenis 50 (1982), 279–96Google Scholar; and P. Godding, ‘La famille dans le droit urbain de l'Europe du Nord-Ouest au bas moyen-âge’, in Carlier and Soens, The household in late medieval cities, 25–36.

35 De Longé, Costumen.

36 SAM, S.I., no. 10–12.

37 Simons, Cities of ladies, 93–5.

38 SAM, OCMW Archive, no. 9445.

39 See, for instance, Heley, The material culture of the tradesmen.

40 SAM, S.I. no. 17, folio 49.

41 SAM, OCMW Archive, no. 9445.

42 Chief heirs are considered those beneficiaries who were explicitly identified as such, but also those who were endowed with the lion's share or a large part of the inheritance (such as all immovable or movable properties), those who received the usufruct of certain immovable property, and those who were endowed with the remainder of the estate. One beguine, of course, could have multiple chief heirs.

43 Simons, Cities of ladies, 100–2.

44 SAM, OCMW Archive, no. 9445.

45 De Moor, ‘Single, safe, and sorry?’, 9.

46 SAM, S.I. no. 10, folio 47r–49v.

47 SAM, OCMW Archive, no. 9445.

48 SAM, OCMW Archive, no. 9445.

49 SAM, S.I. no. 10, folio 50r–51v.

50 Cressy, ‘Kinship and kin interaction’, 53–4; and Provoost, N., ‘Genegenheid tussen vier muren. Informele contacten en sociale relaties van alleenstaande vrouwen in testamenten (Lier, 1670–1755)’, Tijdschrift voor sociale en economische geschiedenis 3 (2010), 3–25Google Scholar.

51 See on the emotional value of beds, for instance, Ashley, K., ‘Material and symbolic gift-giving. Clothes in English and French wills’, in Burns, J. ed., Medieval fabrications: dress, textiles, clothwork, and other cultural imaginings (New York, 2004), 137–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Goldberg, P. J. P., ‘The fashioning of bourgeois domesticity in later medieval England: a material culture perspective’, in Goldberg, P. J. P. and Kowaleski, M. eds., Medieval domesticity. Home, housing and household in medieval England (Cambridge, 2008), 124–44Google Scholar; and Montijn, I., Tussen stro en veren. Het bed in het Nederlandse Interieur (Wormer, 2006)Google Scholar.

52 SAM, OCMW Archive, no. 9445.

53 See, for instance, Bennett, J. M. and Froide, A. M., ‘A singular past’, in Bennett, J. M. and Froide, A. M. eds., Singlewomen in the European past, 1250–1800 (Philadelphia, 1999), 1–37Google Scholar; Provoost, ‘Genegenheid tussen vier muren’, 16.

54 Froide, Never married, 23–4; Trévisi, M., ‘Les relations tantes/nièces dans les familles du Nord de la France au XVIIIe siècle’, Annales de démographie historique 112 (2006), 18–26Google Scholar.

55 SAM, OCMW Archive, no. 9436 (s.f.), first chapter, no. 6.

56 Amy Froide and Judith Bennett similarly argued that single women were in need of a firm family network if they aimed at remaining single. See Bennett and Froide, Singlewomen.

57 SAM, S.I. no. 10, folio 73.

58 SAM, S.I. no. 11, folio 15r–16v, will of Kathelijne Reyers.

59 Bennett and Froide, Singlewomen; Provoost, ‘Genegenheid tussen vier muren’, 16.

60 SAM, S.I. no. 17, folio 71.

61 SAM, OCMW Archive, no. 9445.

62 De Moor and Van Zanden ‘Girl power’, 7–9.

63 However, apparently these kinds of conditional bequests were as old as the beguine movement itself. In wills left by beguines living in the beguinage of Tongeren in the period 1264–1338, Walter Simons found several bequests to particular women on the condition that they became or remained beguines. The beneficiaries of such gifts were often (but not always) related to their benefactors by blood, and in general were young girls, which means that they were stimulated to join a beguine community before they had reached the nuptial age. Simons, Cities of ladies, 72.

64 SAM, OCMW Archive, no. 9445.

65 SAM, S.I. no. 10, folio 74.

66 SAM, OCMW Archive, no. 9444.

67 De Moor, ‘Single, safe, and sorry?’, 9.

68 Research by Tine De Moor suggests that most beguines entering a beguinage in the early modern Low Countries came from a distance that was less than 20 kilometres away from their birth location. See De Moor, ‘Industrious and/or religious’.

69 Ibid, 112.

70 This paper has focused on beguines' family networks and deliberately paid scant attention to these women's possible motives for joining the beguine community of Mechelen. The apparent dominance of religious institutions (such as the numerous convents of the beguinage) amongst the beneficiaries of beguines nevertheless suggests that the sincerity of the religious motives that single women could have had for joining a beguine community cannot be underestimated (see Table 1). It is most likely that apart from the worldly benefits of a beguine life, these single women were also – and possibly even mostly – attracted by the pious and religiously regulated way of life advocated by beguines. For beguines' religiosity, see: Overlaet, Kim, ‘To be or not to be a beguine in an early modern town: piety or pragmatism? The Great Beguinage of St Catherine in sixteenth-century Mechelen’, in Schmidt, A., Blondé, B., Devos, I. and De Groot, J. eds., Single life in the city, 1200–1900 (forthcoming, 2015)Google Scholar.